Pico research for pico doctors

Rapid responses in many cases resemble radio phone-ins, where people take up time without having anything much to say. In the rare instance when they do have something to say, I suspect that the people in a position to change things don’t take any notice.

BMJ pico is pico minded.1 As in bite size education, pico size education is for pico size brains. One can see the slogans now: Read BMJ on the go! Pico—all you need to know in just a few minutes!

Why stop at pico? Be bold BMJ! In a few years when BMJ pico becomes the norm for research, go for nano—a quarter of a page. When nano is too much of a burden to read, go for femto—just one liners. Preferably on Twitter. And why not team up with O2 and send the one liners by mobile phone?

Pico editors for a generation of pico doctors—with femto and nano to look forward to.

I would prefer splitting the BMJ in two: Pico BMJ and Normal BMJ. Pico BMJ has all the infotainment and could also include fashion, financial advice, secondhand cars, lonely hearts, recipes, travel, etc. Normal BMJ has the format used by highly read and highly rated medical journals such as JAMA and the Lancet.

Some doctors may prefer to subscribe only to Pico BMJ, some only to Normal BMJ, and some to both. The BMJ would most likely increase its overall subscription rates: those who do not currently subscribe (pico doctors who may be put off by seeing 3-5 pages of research papers and normal doctors who are put off by the infotainment) might well subscribe. Initially the two journals will have to share editors and peer reviewers but as they diverge, editors and reviewers will be different to cater for their different readership.